Music Friday Blog

From time to time I interview film directors and stars of films about music. Recently I talked with Sophie Huber, Director of Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, and with Harry Dean himself at his favorite bar in West Hollywood. You can read the full interview on Vents Magazine.

I interviewed them and reviewed the film for Music Friday because Harry Dean Stanton was a musicain as well as an actor who appear in 250 films including Repo Man and Paris, Texas. His band - the Harry Dean Stanton Band - played major clubs in LA. His music was recorded, but never published. Huber's next project is to assemble an album of his music.

Harry Dean Stanton is one of Hollywood’s most prolific and legendary actors and a fine musician. He has appeared in over 250 films and 50 television shows and is still acting at the age of 87, performing with Daniel Stern and Laurie Metcalf in the HBO series Getting On, to be released in 2014. He was the lead in Paris, Texas and had important roles in Alien, The Godfather: Part II, Repo Man, The Avengers, Pretty in Pink, and The Green Mile among many, many others.

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction is director Sophie Huber’s first film. Her previous experience of live performances, music composition, writing and co-directing with the film collective, hangover ltd., stood her well in assembling this film. .A stroke of genius was the selection of the very talented and professional Seamus McGarvey as the Director of Photography who produced stunning black and white scenes with Harry, taking full advantage of the actors unique, character-filled.

Another stroke of genius was Huber’s decision to make the film non-linear and to use Harry’s singing and harmonica to roll out his story, instead of the usual documentary practice of starting at the beginning and going to the culmination or the end. By moving back and forth between interviews with Kris Kristofferson, David Lunch (at one point Lynch is interviewing Harry) Wim Wenders, Sam Shepard and Deborah Harry, Sophie weaves together a coherent story of a somewhat incoherent life. There is no through line, but there is a through theme – the search for home, which Harry tells us about in his enigmatic philosophy, his music and his characters.

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (the title comes from a line by Kris Kristofferson) is full of unguarded moments, subtle and not so subtle wry humor, and tales of Harry’s friends Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Kris Kristofferson and others. Never quite in the center of Hollywood, Harry unintentionally illuminates the secondary rings of the industry, the brilliant people who pursue their art and their stories instead of fortunes based on CGI and toy licenses.

Sometimes dark, often impressionistic, occasionally a bit slow for an American audience, but always absorbing, Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction goes far beyond a documentary on an iconic actor, it is a revealing look into the corners of the entertainment industry . Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction is a must see for movie buffs, for HD Stanton fans and for anyone who loves Hollywood and the movies. I guess that makes it a film for all of us.

Dynamic Los Angeles band Polaris Rose bring their vivacious alternative rock sound Music Friday with cuts and conversation re: their sophomore EP "The Moon & its Secrets", ready for release next week. Peter Anthony and Madelynn Elyse make up Polaris Rose, a band that's dedicated to soaring melodies and pitch perfect harmonies, all built atop alt rock instrumentation that is undeniably electric in nature. Their emotional songwriting and female/male vocal dynamics is unique and we - you – get to talk with them this Friday.

Jessica Fleischer, known online as Lots of Love, is representative of the emerging talent in Southern California - poised, smooth, confident and with a unique sound all her own. We will talk with her AT 2:30 pm ET about the album she has just released, It's So Hard.

Singer-songwriter Karen Dezelle combines honest narratives with soft, soothing vocals, creating a rare quality of vulnerability with wide appeal. Karen has lived all over the world and it shows in her deft blending of beats and melodies. Inspired by artists such as Jewel and Joni Mitchell, Karen's brave, emotionally-complex lyrics are offset by a minimalist song structure and sweet, innocent vocals with a hint of Southern twang, creating a unique and moving sound, both calming and exciting. Karen joins us at 2:30 to play songs from her new EP, Lost and Found.

Hollywood film director Johnathan Holiff joins us for a conversation about his new film, My Father and The Man In Black this Friday. Holiff's father, Saul, was Johnny Cash's personal manager from the very beginning. Saul put Johnny and June together, shaped Cash's music and built Cash's career despite drugs and booze and prison and addiction of his own. Johnathan was estranged from his father for 20 years and pushed the memories of Cash aside while he built a career. But his father's suicide and the release of Walk the Line led to his discovery of his father's secret storage locker, full of years of letters, photos, clippings and audiotapes detailing the most intimate aspects of Cash's tumultuous life. That storage locker and years of repressed memories were the foundation of one of the most remarkable films about Cash ever made, and one of the year's most mesmerizing documentaries. Holiff joins us at 2:05 pm ET and will take your calls and emails. The film releases Sept. 6, 2013.

The New Media Festival has become the place for indie film makers and musicians to be seen and heard in Los Angeles. It is whee innovation and creativity happens and draws talent from around the world. A sort of SXW for SoCal, it is where a lot of new talent is born. Susan Johnston, the power behind it, will tell us how she puts it together, how it has grown and how you can be part of it

The legendary Ray Bonneville brings is deep gravel voice and heartland rock, blues and story telling to Music Friday this Friday. He is on tour with two stops in Los Angeles, Saturday night at McCabe's in Santa Monica and Sunday night at the Grand Ole Echo in Echo Park. We will be playing tunes from his album Bad Man's Blood and talking about the songs he has in the works.

Joe Gil opens tonight at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood with his unique, dreamy tunes from early EP's Leave or Stay and Blankets and new songs for the upcoming album. We talk with him in Segment 1 and get beneath the very impressive high gloss shine that this young talent brings to the stage and the recording studio. Call in, email in, tweet us.

In Segment 2 we are joined by the fabulous Sonnet, queen of California pop with songs from her debut album Sonnet. We will play cuts from the album - which ranges from the heart stopping "Girls" to bounce and pop in "Boys". Sonnet is a talent on the move. You have heard her songs (and seen her) in commercials including Coca Cola, now you can talk with her on Music Friday this week.